Stig Anderson

Stikkan Erik Leopold Anderson was born on 25 January 1931 in Hova, Sweden, the son of a single mother named Ester. Anderson began his career as a chemistry and mathematics teacher at a primary school, by taking night classes after leaving school at the age of 15. Having written his first song at age 16, Anderson soon entered the Swedish popular music scene, becoming a music producer, manager and occasional performer.

Anderson began writing songs as early as 1951, and in 1959 gained his breakthrough with the song "Är du kär i mig ännu, Klas-Göran?" ("Are You Still in Love With Me, Klas-Göran?"), written for Swedish singer Lill-Babs. During the 1960s, he was one of Sweden's most prolific songwriters. According to Anton Stimm in the Swedish SVT documentary 'Stikkan' Stig Anderson wrote 767 published titles. Anderson also founded Sweden Music in 1960, as well as several other companies. Three years later, Anderson co-founded Polar Music with Bengt Bernhag.

Stig Anderson was married to Gudrun Anderson (née Rystedt, 1931–2010), and had two sons, Anders and Lasse and a daughter Marie. His daughter, Marie Ledin (born in 1957, wife of Swedish star and ABBA concert backing vocalist Tomas Ledin) was also involved in the music industry. In the mid-1980s she started a new, highly successful record label called Record Station (sold to German BMG in the early 1990s), followed by Anderson Records. Anderson Records released Anni-Frid Lyngstad's Swedish comeback album Djupa andetag in 1996, as well as Michael B. Tretow's Greatest Hits in 1999.

On 12 September 1997 at the age of 66, Stig Anderson died of a heart attack. His funeral was broadcast live by Sveriges Television.

Legal disputes

The contract with the performers, as well as the international distribution, ran from a standard publishing and recording deal involving identical contracts, rather than from one written specifically with the performers of the band. This led to problems later, when three of the four ABBA members terminated their relationship with Anderson when it was revealed that Anderson had used this contract to take a percentage of profits at a value of 4.5 million euros over the course of many years. A complaint against Anderson was submitted to the Stockholm District Court in June 1990 by Agnetha Fältskog's company Agnetha Fältskog Produktion AB, Benny Andersson's company Mono Music AB, as well as a Dutch company holding Björn Ulvaeus's rights. The dispute was eventually settled out of court in July 1991; the terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.

In 1982, Anni-Frid Lyngstad had sold all the shares in the Polar Music company given to her by Anderson, as she moved abroad. She remains the only member of the band never to seek legal recourse for past royalty fees and was not involved with the legal proceedings against Anderson.